Student Selected Summer Assignments

Almost every student knows the dread of going back to school. The easy and laid back summer fads out and suddenly it's back to the old grind. The sleeping in till noon goes back to waking up at six, bathing suits get put back in the closet, and the sun tans fade. Yet, almost every student can relate to the one thing that always keeps them tied to school during the summer, the dreaded summer assignment. It could be a book report or a math packet, either way it burns in the back of their minds while they cannonball into pools. It seeps into thoughts while they try to fall asleep. If teachers gave students the opportunity to discover their own work, and maybe even a passion, students work would be of a higher quality and it might actually have them excited to go back to school.

When someone decidedly does not like something, you can't force them to like it, no matter how hard you try. That is what it can feel like for students when teachers assign work that is not interesting to them over and over again. There is no way for every part of classwork to interest students, but teachers could make an effort to make the one assignment that no one wants to do over the summer, interesting. When students have the ability to decide what they will study in a project, they are more excited and more willing to get the work done. Having students choose their project will save both the teachers and students from the painful force feeding of information.

Now, this assignment can not be a free for all, that would not be completely fair. There may be some students who go above and beyond while some may do the bare minimum and call it done. To avoid this scenario teachers could implement some sort of rubric or guidelines for what the student chosen project would have to include and how they will go about grading it. This way the playing field is level and everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

A common issue faced with summer work is the student procrastination. Obviously no one wants to do schoolwork on their vacation so it is common practice to put it off for as long as possible and then rush the night before. Even if there was three months to do it! With a student chosen project, students may feel more inclined to do their work because working on something that interests them won't feel like such a chore.

The end of summer is not fun for anyone involved, students and teachers alike. Why would we want to dampen the vacation with unexciting work looming over students heads the whole time. Students should feel excited to go back to school and be they should have something to look foward to sharing with their classes. It is common knowledge that doing work that is uninteresting to you lowers your performance and makes the work that much more of a chore. With student selected summer assignments we can prevent that and create a new wave of excitement about returning to school. 